According to Aaron M. Renn, left-leaning urbanists chafe against a regulatory culture their ideology supports. Favoring "regulation for thee but not for me," they want to bend the rules, but only for enterprises they like.

While many states are rushing to figure out how to regulate transportation network companies like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, Arizona came very close to exempting the companies from the taxi and limo regulations.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman penned an op-ed for the New York Times that specifically calls out Airbnb and Uber—two companies at the forefront of calls to regulate the emerging sharing economy.

After Seattle Citizens to Repeal Ordinance 124441 acquired twice the necessary number of signatures necessary to send a March ordinance capping the number of Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar drivers in the city, the mayor will negotiate with the companies.

The 5,000 local ordinances that prohibit “annoyances” often focus on the fraught intersections of the public and private. And it’s probably no surprise that public employees often seek legal protections from annoying (or annoyed) citizens.